President Alvi says 'cypher remarks' distorted in media

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has said that he backs Chairman PTI Imran Khan's narrative on US cypher and the conspiracy against his government. 

He also repeated  his stance that the diplomatic cypher should be thoroughly probed. However, he complained that his statement on the US cypher was widely misrepresented in the media. He said he always found PTI chairman Imran Khan a truthful and honest man.

Imran Khan rallied huge support from the masses after he launched the campaign that a conspiracy was behind his ouster. In his speech on March 27, this year, days before his government was toppled, he waved a "threat letter", which was a diplomatic cypher.

"I support Imran Khan because he is an honest and trustworthy person. That is why, I think that cypher is true if it is Imran Khan's narrative," President Arif Alvi said, speaking to a private news channel on Wednesday.

"Imran Khan said the conspiracy took place, so I am convinced to a great extent that it happened," President Alvi said. "When Imran Khan wrote me a letter, I was convinced that the cypher should be probed as a conspiracy took place against the PTI government. That conviction of mine still holds," he said.

"Why would I send the cypher to the Supreme Court, if I believed that no conspiracy ever took place?" President Alvi said he sent the entire arguments to the court and stated that it would be difficult to prove. He said he cited in the letter all the past conspiracies in Pakistan's history, including the one against Liaquat Ali Khan, that were hard to prove.

"People said that I stabbed Imran Khan in the back. Imran Khan is my friend and I still believe in him as my leader," he added. When asked if he was 100% sure that a plot unfolded against Imran Khan, President Alvi said he did not use the word "100%" while referring to the conspiracy.

The President explained that his statement regarding the US cypher was widely misquoted in the media, saying it was presented out of context. "I said Imran Khan was frustrated. I meant he [Imran] was angry and that's why he went into the masses," he said.

"The media should have asked me what I meant when I said those words," he said, adding he just gave his opinion about the cypher.

He said he requested the court to have a look at the circumstantial evidence for the investigation into suspicions that he mentioned in the letter.

President Alvi said he still believes that his decision to dissolve the National Assembly was right. He said he did nothing unconstitutional and is not liable to any impeachment bid as proposed by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

Replying to another query, he said he wished elections are held at the earliest but can't ask to hold pre-elections.

According to a statement issued earlier by the President House on Tuesday, the President has taken serious notice of the news items published in various sections of the press. The President said his statement regarding the ‘cypher’, taken out of his interview with a private news channel on Monday, was “grossly misquoted and wrongly highlighted.”

“In his interview, the President clearly said that he had suspicions about a conspiracy that could only be established after a thorough investigation was done,” the statement said.

The President said his position has not changed at all since he sent a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan. In that letter, he said he requested the apex court to conduct a thorough inquiry into the matter as he strongly believed that the issue must be investigated.

“He referred the matter to Supreme Court not because he had no suspicions about a conspiracy, but because he ‘had suspicions’ as the matter was raised by the ex-PM of the country and an impartial investigation was mandatory, including all the circumstantial evidence available,” as per the statement of the President House.

The statement said that President Alvi in his interview had said, “We cannot ignore the fact that the national outfall of the ‘cypher’ and its repercussions led to political upheaval, an impartial inquiry, beyond the demarche issued by the Govt of Pakistan, was requested.”

The President House termed it “unfortunate” that the words of the president were distorted on a very grave matter with serious implications.